Simmel Modern Individual

Beatrice Ajighevi
March 13, 2013
Berlin
IreneAccording to Simmel, the development of a protective, rational barrier has a profound impact on individuals living in a metropolis. A modern individual becomes indifferent, the “blasé outlook” becomes a consequence of the urban mind-set which results in a larger degree of personal freedom, they are freed from prejudices, develop a cosmopolitan attitude which develops a greater degree of personal freedom and struggle to maintain their personality and preserve their unique inwardness in a metropolis. The metropolis does differ significantly from the upbringing of a rural town. While living in a metropolis, the modern individual is constantly bombarded by a constant change of stimuli on a daily basis, “In order to adjust itself to the shifts and contradictions in events, it does not require the disturbances and inner upheavals which are the only means whereby more conservative personalities are able to adapt themselves to the same rhythm of events. Thus the metropolitan type creates a protective organ for itself against the profound disruption with the fluctuations and discontinuities of the external milieu that threaten it”. Unlike those of a more rural setting, whose daily activities are more common, ritualistic, and expected, the modern individual deals with rapid change in a very short amount of time. In order to cope with these constant shifts, one develops a “protective organ”. The metropolitan encounters so many individuals, the protective organ allows one to not deal with each person on an emotional or personal based level. Especially in a money based economy, personal relationships are nearly impossible. The modern individual becomes indifferent to all things personal because intellectual relationships deal with others specifically for self-gain and how can other help ones advancement. One must deal with others in a matter-of-fact attitude. People are no longer treated based off of personality or their...

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1. Briefly summarize the theorist’s main assumptions/theories:
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• OBJECTIVE CULTURE-Culture becomes objective as its size diversity of components and complexity increase. It leads to anomie and the blasé attitude
• RELIGION AND GENDER-both gender and religiosity are natural states for humans. Each person has an impulse and a certain degree of religiousity. Religion objectifies the world by laying claim to such things such as love and faith. Gender is also a neccerscary attribute of human. Men naturally objectify themselves as they are motivated to produce. Women are naturally intergrated with all aspects of their being.
2. List terms/concepts and write a short definition:
Social forms- simmels basic perspective of social life. A patterned mode of interaction theough which people meet personal and group goals. Forms exist prior to interaction and provide rules and values that guide interaction
Socialbility-A social form that is purely social without purpose other than establishing and experiencing social connections with others
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Georg Simmel, a sociologist and a philosopher born in 1858 in Germany, is best known as a microsociologist who played a significant role in the development of small-group research, symbolic interactionism and exchenge theory.
There are four basic levels of concern in Simmel’s work. First are his assumptions about the psychological workings of social life. Second is his interest in the sociological workings of interpersonal relationships. Third is his work on the structure of and changes in the social and cultural “spirit” of his times. He also adopted the principle of emergence, which is the idea that higher levels emerge from the lower levels. Finally, he dealt with his views in the nature and inevitable fate of humanity. His most microscopic work dealt with forms and the interaction that takes place with different types of people.
Simmel's basic approach can be described as "methodological relationism," because he operates on the principle that everything interacts in some way with everything else. His essay on fashion, for example, notes that fashion is a form of social relationship that allows those who wish to conform to do so while also providing the norm from which individualistic people can deviate. Within the fashion process, people take on a variety of social roles that play off the decisions and actions of others.
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